Kyle Ellison and his family had mere seconds to escape as flames from a wildfire raced toward their home in the town of Kula.
Thankfully their home is still intact but thousands of others have lost everything.
“It’s really hard to think that this is real life and that this actually happened,” said Ellison.
Ellison lives on Maui in the town of Kula with his family. He had just come back from a trip to Western Washington and hadn’t even unpacked when he and his family had to evacuate.
“I came back the neighbors and I are fighting it with garden hoses. I’m getting water out of the sink. I’m getting my pot that I cook spaghetti with, trying to throw that on the flames,” Ellison said, “And yeah, just doing everything we could think of to try to contain it, but the wind was just too strong.”
Days after the fire there are still helicopters in the air doing water drops, firefighters on the ground working toward containment, and community members coming together in any way they can to help.
“We still have helicopters right there behind me dropping water,” Ellison said.
They have no water, little food, and spotty cell phone service while hot spots keep flaring up around his home. He said he was worried about his three young sons.
“They’re sitting here playing with their little trucks in the yard and you know I look over and there’s six-foot flames feet from their head that just popped up on a little grass terrace, so it’s still a very active situation,” Ellison said.
He said the most immediate need on the island right now is shelter.
“We have people sleeping in their cars. We have hundreds of people sleeping in parks, we have 24 people cramming into 2 bedroom houses because they’re the only one of their family that still has a house standing,” Ellison said. “Our community needs shelter tonight, like now. If you have any connections to housing on Maui make it available to a local family for a short period right now.”
He said even though the situation on the ground right now is dire, the people of Maui are resilient.
Maui Rapid Response is providing direct aid to those affected and if you’d like to help, visit their website.
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